I used to own a copy of Cubase VST/24 4 for MacOS 9. It ran on a PowerPC and I used it to create hundreds of songs. The PowerPC is since long gone and so is the box with the installer CD, the manuals etc. They went to recycling years ago.
Now I’m in the process of rescuing some of the old songs by converting them from the old file format to MIDI or whatever format I can get. To do this I have installed a MacOS 9 emulator called SheepShaver on my Windows machine. I’ve installed MacOS 9.0.4 and downloaded a copy of Cubase VST/24 4 from a repository that has old Macintosh software.
Now I’m trying to install Cubase VST/24 on this virtual machine in hope of being able to open up my old songs in the environment in which they where created. The only problem is that I no longer have the CD or the box from when I originally bought Cubase VST/24 4 and the installer wants a serial number.
How do I get Cubase VST/24 4 running? Are there serial numbers or special installers for legacy products like Cubase VST/24 4?
Just to keep anyone following this thread updated, I’ve moved on to Qemu - PowerPC for the MacOS 9 emulation since I had problems creating virtual disks large enough in SheepShaver.
I managed to install Cubase VST/24 4.1, but it will not run properly. I have no idea why - just this cryptic error message:
I have no idea what error type 3 means.
If I remember correctly it was Cubase VST/24 4.1 that I ran back in the day and I know I had the latest version of MacOS 9.2. But maybe VST/24 4.1 is the wrong version for MacOS 9.2? Perhaps I should try getting VST/25 version 5 instead? That is, if I can get the installer file on to the virtual machine. Transferring files between Windows and Qemu has proven to be somewhat difficult, at least for larger files.
I know it’s a daunting task to get a complex piece of software like Cubase to run on a virtual machine, but if anyone else is trying to rescue old songs, please feel free to share your thoughts on the project.
The file format of Cubase projects has always been compatible across platforms, so if you have the “.all” projects from Cubase VST/24 (and any associated audio files), they can be opened on Windows using e.g. Cubase SX3 to import them, then saved as .cpr which will open in any modern version of Cubase – assuming of course that you have a current license to enable you to run Cubase SX3.
